Proto Noir
by SiFi270
Summary: In a world where robots live among humans, a robot's superior analytical skills can be very useful indeed. This is why Proto Man chose to work as a hardboiled detective, and why he's been hired to investigate the disappearance of Rock and Thomas Light.


For modern robots, smoking is totally pointless. It doesn't even have a negative effect; their ventilation system is designed to keep anything unpleasant from getting in. But for an older robot like me, it can actually do some harm. If I wanted to, I could smoke myself into an early grave.

Well, that's not entirely true. Because of the unstable power core I was given, I can't expect to last, smoking or not, so I figured 'what the hell', and now I'm an addict.

Some of my clients mistake me for a human. I don't really mind, because the ones who actually realize I'm a robot seem to think they can just bark orders at me, and I'll have no choice but to follow. While that's true for most of us, my creator was smarter than that. Still not enough to give me a decent source of power, but beggars can't be choosers.

I sit alone in my office, ready to light a cigarette before a brief chime sounds in my head, letting me know I have a message.

"Proto Man? There's someone here with a case for you."

The voice belongs to my secretary, Kalinka Cossack. She's a human from Russia, and she's a very nice girl. Sometimes, I think she's far too nice to be working with me, but to be honest, that's probably _why_ she works with me: She's one of the few people able to forgive my shortcomings. If she ever gave up on me and quit her job, I don't think I'd be able to find a replacement.

"Send her in." I wait a couple of minutes before hearing some steady footsteps outside, followed by a hesitant knock on the door. I invite them inside, and I meet my client.

Like me, she's a robot, and like me, she can easily be mistaken for a human. Unlike me, she's a more recent, more advanced model, but she doesn't look like she's designed for anything too difficult. Whoever built her was probably just lonely.

Her outfit consists of a small red dress that would make most people wearing it look like a hooker, but she manages to look innocent in spite of it. If anything damages her innocent demeanor, it's the fact that she's in my office.

"Can I help you?" I say.

"Ah… Yes," she says. "It's a family issue. My brother and my creator have gone missing."

Straight to the point, I see. I smirk, but I stop when I notice it's making her uneasy. I'm pretty sure I wasn't designed to smile anyway.

"My brother often sneaks out at night," she says, "and I don't think he knows I'm aware of that. He didn't come back this morning though, and when I went to see my creator, he was missing too."

"Do you see your creator often?" I say.

She shakes her head. "Most of the time, he's working on a new robot."

I frown. My own creator abandoned me to work on other products, so this is a touchy subject for me. She doesn't seem to realize I'm offended, but even then I can't really fault her.

"I really should have asked this sooner," I say, "but what are their names?"

"My brother's name is Rock," she says. "And my creator's Thomas Light."

"Thomas Light." I repeat the name slowly, like I'm chewing something with an unpleasant taste. I have quite a history with Dr. Light, but she doesn't need to know anything about it, and besides, what kind of a detective would I be if I let my prejudices get in the way of business?

"I understand that not everyone's welcome in Dr. Light's lab," I say. "With the doctor himself missing, whose decision would it be to let me investigate there?"

"That'd be me," she says. "I'll take you there."

I stand up from my desk, putting on my helmet. "Thank you, Miss Light."

A smile slowly comes to her face, as if it's not sure if it's welcome. "Call me Roll."

* * *

At Dr. Light's lab, I can see that an investigation is already underway, courtesy of some of his other robots. For the most part, I can tell from their design that they were each made for a specific purpose, and with this in mind, I approach the one with a clock on his chest. He looks impatiently at me, clearly wanting to know why I felt the need to interrupt what he was doing.

"And you are?"

"I'm a detective," I say. "I was hired by your sister. You can call me Proto Man, or 'Blues', if you prefer."

He responds with a grunt of acknowledgement, and he's about to return to what he's doing, but I'm not done with him.

"Are you able to reverse time?"

"Don't you think I'd try that if I could?" he retorts. "I can only slow it down, but someone like you probably wouldn't notice the difference."

I decide I'm finished with the conversation and make my way inside. Most of the robots are kept on standby in a single room, but Roll and her brother seem to have human bedrooms. This doesn't surprise me at all. It's just like Dr. Light to play favorites.

Since Rock was probably somewhere else when he disappeared, I decide to check Dr. Light's office first. The whole place is a mess, with unfinished projects all over the place, some of which haven't been touched for weeks by the looks of things. If there's a lead in here, chances are it hasn't been here long, which means it shouldn't be buried under month-old piles of scrap. But nothing that's been here for less than a week is any use to me, so I end up checking the older stuff anyway. My search eventually brings me to a pile of discarded blueprints, near the bottom of which I find something that takes me by surprise.

The design doesn't seem to be for an entire robot, but just armor for a robot to wear. The design is sleek and agile, and the strangest thing about it is the arm cannon, which is able to charge and fire plasma bolts or copy abilities from other robots it's defeated. Dr. Light's a pacifist, and the idea of him designing a fighting robot makes little sense to me. What makes even less sense is that I've seen this design before, as confirmed by the name written at the top of the sheet.

Mega Man.

Mega Man's one of the most renowned members of the police force, mainly because he's one of the few members who's neither corrupt nor incompetent. He can be naïve at times, and refuses to fight unless he has to, and most of the time, he has to. With that in mind, I suppose Dr. Light's decision makes considerably more sense, but I'm still not sure why or how he'd be persuaded to do this in the first place.

Mega Man often avoids talking about his life outside the police force, so whoever he is under the armor, he probably keeps it a secret from his siblings. At the moment, my main suspect is Rock, but I'll need more than just a hunch if I want to prove that.

Having found my first clue, I leave the lab, my next destination already decided. If Mega Man's with the police, this could easily be over before dawn, but if not, then I've got a big case ahead of me.

* * *

A/N: This one came to me in a dream last night. I'm not sure what inspired the dream though, especially considering how I haven't even played any Mega Man games in a while.


End file.
